What the Taliban asked Bowe Bergdahl about Obama

By Rebecca Kaplan

December 26, 2015 / 4:35 PM
/ CBS News

When his Taliban guards were bored, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said they would ask him, "Is Obama gay and sleeps with men?"

Bergdahl, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2009 after wandering from his post in Afghanistan, is telling his story publicly for the first time. His series of interviews with filmmaker Mark Boal, who wrote the screenplays for "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty" are airing on the popular podcast, "Serial."

"Picture someone taking a bag, throwing it into the closet, shutting the door and just forgetting about it. That was basically how they treated me," he told Boal.

Bowe Bergdahl speaks for the first time in popular "Serial" podcast

He made two escape attempts during his five years in captivity. He first attempted to escape soon after his abduction, while his guards were dealing with a water delivery. After wriggling out of his chains and running for just 15 minutes, he was recaptured and beaten with a rubber hose before being moved.

For the next three months, he was chained, spread-eagled to a bed and allowed to use the bathroom twice a day.

"That's how I spent the majority of the next three months," he said.

He later hatched a second escape plan after breaking out through his window and using his bedding to lower himself to the ground. His escape lasted just eight and a half days, and he was badly injured by a fall in the dark.

"That escape was the last time I saw stars since until the night Special Forces picked me up," he said, though he also recalled the anguish of seeing American drones being overhead and being unable to contact them.

Sometimes his captors would grow bored at their posts and speak to him - that was when they asked about President Obama's sexual proclivities.

The Taliban also loved American soda.

"They love Mountain Dew. If you want to piss people off in that country, all you do is cut off their sugar supply," he said.

Bergdahl currently faces military charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He was arraigned in a military court last week, but deferred entering a plea and has yet to decide if he wants to face a court-martial with a jury or just a judge.